Kromex

Kromex, a division of Alcoa Aluminum Company, began producing kitchenware and serveware around 1957. Products included canister sets, salt and pepper sets, coffee and tea services, drinking glasses, spice sets, ice buckets, cake servers and trays of all sizes. Although very popular, the items were produced for a very short time.

At the time Kromex was manufactured, Alcoa was already primarily an industrial firm. In the early 1960s the company was purchased by Reynolds Aluminum, who phased out production of items for household use and concentrated on industrial production.

I recently found two Kromex tidbit servers on eBay that are in mint condition. They look like they were stored in someone’s china cabinet and never used. I got one for $4.99 and the other for $9.99. They’ll be great for serving homemade candy and slices of cheese logs over the holidays…made from my mother’s and grandmother’s recipes from back in the 1950s and 60s, of course. I’ll post more old family recipes in December.

In this post, I’ve included a recipe for a candy I remember my mother making in the 1950s. I’m sure she found it in Good Housekeeping or Ladies’ Home Journal, because she was always clipping recipes from magazines and stuffing them into her battered Better Homes and Gardens cookbook with the red-and-white-check cover. The ingredients may sound a little odd, but it was one of my favorite holiday candies…sweet, slightly salty and delightfully crunchy.

My recent Kromex finds on eBay...just in time for the holidays

Martha's Butterscotch Crunch (c. 1956)

Ingredients:

½ c. peanut butter

6 oz. package butterscotch chips

3 oz can chow mein noodles

2 c. miniature marshmallows

Combine peanut butter and butterscotch in double boiler.  Melt completely.  Stir well.  Add noodles and marshmallows.  Allow marshmallows to melt slightly.  Drop by spoon on waxed paper.  Chill until set.